[spoilers] Commodore: Worse than Toku, it's Giggles of Siam!

[Commodore]

Up north, I basically was poking around for a shot at sniping Serdoa's city, he spotted me, I retreated. No big deal. I'd post a picture, but just K.O.'d Sunrise's server.

I did see this bit of news last night:

Also, Plako took two of Adhoc's remaining three cities this turn. So...Plako and Serdoa are neighbors now!

I noticed that too. Does he have a trusted advisor named Eye Row?

Yep! Man loves his tea.

[Rowain]

I noticed that too. Does he have a trusted advisor named Eye Row?

Yep! Man loves his tea.

As long as he has no sister everything is alright

[Commodore]

I noticed that too. Does he have a trusted advisor named Eye Row?

Yep! Man loves his tea.

As long as he has no sister everything is alright

Heh. As this is a sane and rational dynasty, she's nowhere near the succession.

[Rowain]

I noticed that too. Does he have a trusted advisor named Eye Row?

Yep! Man loves his tea.

As long as he has no sister everything is alright

Heh. As this is a sane and rational dynasty, she's nowhere near the succession.

Sure sure its just that the words "combination of Shaka, Monty and bullshark" describe her so well

[Commodore]

Okay, surprising (and awesome) revelation that a lot of you are familiar with Avatar aside, I got a Great Scientist. Which means that we're about to fire a golden age. Which means that we are about to do some awesome stuff, probably. Hopefully.

The Situation:
-The Northern Hemisphere is at war, except for Xenu (what.)...this means that my potential hostiles in the form of Azza or Serdoa are otherwise engaged, although Serdoa isn't what I would call trustworthy even so. Still I doubt he wants to go deep into my lands.
-The Southern Hemisphere is waiting for Astronomy. Until galleons, we're all just waving at each other. So this is a secure time, but won't be for long.
-Plako is digesting Adhoc. Serdoa, Brick (who still has a bit of fight left). Slowcheetah is behind Philo, up Paper. Scooter and Bigger are good-not-great economically. I can probably get the highest beaker totals of anyone here right now, certainly with a golden age.

So...LIBERALISM HO!

Yep. The essential plan is to fire a golden age, flip into Pacifism/Caste System (please don't kill me) and knock out three GP, the first a scientist to bulb half of Education, the other two a GM and something to kick off a second Golden Age. The third from the National Epic capital might lag a couple turns; that's fine. Liberalism target can be, in order of beaker value: Astronomy, Nationalism, Gunpowder. Astronomy is the preference in a vacuum, Nationalism if the Taj looks viable but only with the slingshot, and Gunpowder if things are looking dangerous.

Some housekeeping beforehand (Thoth, Cornflakes, I welcome input).
-Need to line up whips, particularly for the two settlers incoming. Caste is awesome in many ways, but Slavery will be missed.
-Pikes and cats, more of them...I want five pikes, ten cats in Stoney Knob in addition to the dozen+ mammoths. Enough to stop a couple dozen Mayan knights, at least.
-First GSci is out of Verdant Acres, need to time it for five golden age turns.
-Second GMerch is out of Western Heights, need it to come up before the GPP monster of the capital gets to 600.
-Third, as seen, is capital, and a GE skew is definitely preferred if possible for Taj sniping.
-Finally, I'm looking at getting a GP out of Riverside the next Golden Age, before Scientific Method at least. SciMeth will be a horror for GP production, killing Parthenon, Great Library, and Temple of Artemis. Maybe a GPro out of Riverside for easy matching for a third Golden Age in the Era of New Civics.

[Cornflakes]

after you kicked the Zulu offshore and it looked like you were going into builder mode I decided to turn global and watch some of the other conflicts play out ...

[Thoth]

Yep. The essential plan is to fire a golden age, flip into Pacifism/Caste System (please don't kill me) and knock out three GP, the first a scientist to bulb half of Education, the other two a GM and something to kick off a second Golden Age. The third from the National Epic capital might lag a couple turns; that's fine. Liberalism target can be, in order of beaker value: Astronomy, Nationalism, Gunpowder. Astronomy is the preference in a vacuum, Nationalism if the Taj looks viable but only with the slingshot, and Gunpowder if things are looking dangerous.

Some housekeeping beforehand (Thoth, Cornflakes, I welcome input).
-Need to line up whips, particularly for the two settlers incoming. Caste is awesome in many ways, but Slavery will be missed.

Whipping just before a GA isn't the greatest idea I've heard today.

We can (and possibly should) swap back to slavery on the last turn of the GA.

-Pikes and cats, more of them...I want five pikes, ten cats in Stoney Knob in addition to the dozen+ mammoths. Enough to stop a couple dozen Mayan knights, at least.

Serdoa won't be sending Knights at us. He might be streaky at times, but he's no fool. He won't send knights up against BEs.

It's more likely to be gropos on boats as the spearhead, possibly combined with a Cur/Cavalry stack. Given his starting location and expansion, he'll have a decent navy already and has a very strong interest in establishing and maintaining naval superiority. He's in a bit of a bind wrt to Astro. Losing the Colossus will cost him a lot of commerce, but delaying it puts him at risk.

Hrm. Actually, now that I think about it: There is currently very little we can do vs a combined arms stack sans mounted. We don't have enough HA's to flank away cats (and HAs don't do well vs Pikes) and BE's aren't so hot vs pikes either. So long as Serdoa keeps his stack mounted free, the BE's special ability is useless.

-First GSci is out of Verdant Acres, need to time it for five golden age turns.
-Second GMerch is out of Western Heights, need it to come up before the GPP monster of the capital gets to 600.
-Third, as seen, is capital, and a GE skew is definitely preferred if possible for Taj sniping.
-Finally, I'm looking at getting a GP out of Riverside the next Golden Age, before Scientific Method at least. SciMeth will be a horror for GP production, killing Parthenon, Great Library, and Temple of Artemis. Maybe a GPro out of Riverside for easy matching for a third Golden Age in the Era of New Civics.

I really don't like using WH to starve out a GP. We pay a huge opportunity cost in lost cottage turns. We'd be better off starving one of our North East cities. And our focus should be on 3 or 4 more GSs before merchants/artists/priests for GA #2.

I think it's a bit early for a second GA vs two scientist bulbs towards Uni/PP. At around 2k beakers each, I think we gain more beakers via bulbs vs a second GA. Those bulbs also save us a lot of turns on teching two important econ techs (PP would be worth upwards of 25 commerce per turn right now, and a lot of that commerce is in cities with multiplier buildings. That's a lot of free beakers/gold to be had.)

Aim for a second GA a little later on.

Tech path: We *need* Fuedalism as our next tech.

Guilds would be very useful (Grocer in the cap helps our gold situation nicely, boosted Workshops and also Knights of our own).

then hit Paper/Uni (single or double bulbed)/Lib (Nat or Astro, I have a slight preference for Nat but both are excellent choices.)/Printing Press (double bulbed by prefernece, it's 5700 beakers )/Banking/GP/Astro or Nat/ then either Music/Mil trad or Chemistry/Mil Sci/Steel or RP/Rifling.


Civics post GA:

HR is our only current choice in the first column.

With Fued we could exit the GA in Vassalage/Pacifism/either Slavery or Caste. That would enable us to push out double promoted gropos in baracks cities and continue to push out some more great people at a good clip.

Alternatively:

keep Beuro and OR/Slavery. Lets us whip out the tail end of our 7 Universities to get Oxford started soon.

[fluffyflyingpig]

Wait. Serdoa, the guy who you just were caught red-handed attempting to snipe a city from, is untrustworthy?

[Commodore]

Well yeah, didn't say he was unwarrantedly hostile or anything.

We actually wouldn't starve off any population in WH, Thoth, but I can definitely be brought around to Printing Press bulber over an earlier GA. Although we'll need to watch our beakers/expenses...once Oxford is online, and possibly before, running a trade mission is probably even more efficient. I'll look for more poor sods to starve.

[fluffyflyingpig]

Well yeah, didn't say he was unwarrantedly hostile or anything.

Some old adage about pots and kettles comes to mind here.